Many conventional regulators include a valve body and a control assembly for regulating fluid flow through the valve body. The control assembly generally comprises a control element such as a valve plug, for example, coupled to a diaphragm or other pressure sensing device for automatically moving the control element in response to pressure changes at the outlet of the valve body. Additionally, some conventional regulators include a spring that biases the control element into a predetermined position in the valve body, e.g., an open position or a closed position. So configured, during operation, the spring naturally biases the control element into its predetermined position and changes in the outlet pressure change the position of the control element to enable or disable fluid flow through the valve body, as desired. Fluid flowing through the valve body can generate vibrations in the system. High and low frequency resonance caused by these vibrations can hamper the operational integrity of the regulators.
One solution for reducing resonance is to include a spring clip surrounding a portion of the load spring to dampen vibrations. One conventional design of a spring clip 1 includes a generally U-shaped member such as that depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2. The spring clip 1 depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 includes a body plate 2 and a pair of opposing arm plates 3 extending outwardly therefrom. When assembled into the regulator, the spring clip 1 is positioned into a cylindrical cup shaped member 4, as depicted in FIG. 2, and then a bottom portion of a spring 5 is disposed positioned between the opposing arm plates 3 and body plate 2. This assembly process can be tedious and time-consuming as the spring clip must be manually manipulated to spread the arm plates 3 apart.